Almost Sisters
by lella7
Summary: Ginny and Tonks quickly became good friends, almost like sisters. This is the story of how they first met. Written for round three of Fanfiction Idol on the HPFC forum. Currently a one-shot, but may be continued at some point.


Almost Sisters

Ginny Weasley was more than a little wary when she first set foot in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. She had expected the Headquarters of the resistance movement against You-Know-Who to be bright and bustling, exciting and glamorous, and she had felt honoured that she would be spending the majority of her summer there. However, spending her days cleaning a grimy, neglected house owned by a man she had, until very recently, believed to be a mass-murderer was not quite what she had expected.

Nor were the members of the Order were the exciting bunch of rebels she had pictured. Aside from her parents, eldest brother and the aforementioned falsely accused mass murderer, the only Order members she had spoken to were her ex-Defence professor Remus Lupin and a shady looking man named Mundungus Fletcher. The rest, who she had only seen from a distance as she was always sent to her bedroom whenever they held a meeting, seemed like very ordinary people of around her parents' age.

So when, as she was being herded from the kitchen by her irate mother, a young woman with spiky violet hair toppled into her path, she couldn't help but be a little intrigued.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," the woman said loudly, causing everyone around her to automatically shush her, before their hisses were drowned out by the screams of Mrs Black's portrait.

The woman stood, giving an awkward half grin, as the other Order members struggled to shut the curtains over the shrieking canvas.

"Sorry about that," she whispered to Ginny.

"No problem," she grinned back.

"I'm Tonks."

"Nice to meet you. I'm-"

"Ginny!" Mrs Weasley hissed. "The meeting's about to start. Why aren't you upstairs yet?"

"Sorry, Mum," she murmured and reluctantly made her way upstairs, giving Tonks a friendly parting smile.

ooo

"Where are the others?" her mother demanded as Ginny walked into the kitchen alone after hearing the call for dinner. She was pleased to see that Tonks was sitting at the kitchen table and clearly staying to eat with them.

"Hermione's studying, Fred and George are making a lot of noise and Ron's being attacked by an owl," Ginny replied honestly.

"Which owl?" Mrs Weasley asked, turning away from the large cooking pot on the stove.

"Hedwig. Apparently Harry sent Ron and Hermione letters asking where they are and what's going on with orders that Hedwig attacks them 'til they reply."

"Well if they're not down here soon, I'm not feeding them," Mrs Weasley said firmly and turned back to her dinner preparation.

"Poor kid," Tonks said with a sympathetic frown. "It can't be much fun for him to be cooped up with those Muggles all summer with just the Daily Prophet telling him he's crazy for news."

"So, is Harry going to be coming here at some point?" Ginny asked hopefully.

Tonks glanced around to check Mrs Weasley still had her back to them, before nodding at Ginny whilst saying, "I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about that."

"Yes and you shouldn't be asking questions like that, young lady. You know that you're not allowed to know Order business," her mother scolded. Tonks winked at her.

Suddenly, an ungodly crash resounded from somewhere upstairs. It was so loud that Ginny's first thought was that they were under siege from Death Eaters. Tonks even took out her wand.

"FRED! GEORGE!" Mrs Weasley bellowed, making them both jump. "WE ARE GUESTS IN THIS HOUSE AND IF YOU'VE BLOWN A HOLE THOUGH ANOTHER WALL THEN-" Her threats were drowned out by yet more screams as she reached the top of the stairs and woke Mrs Black.

"Such a nice, peaceful place you live in," Tonks muttered with a grin.

"I'm used to it. I've got six older brothers so I can just tune noise out now."

"Wow!" Tonks' eyes widened. "That's fantastic! I'm an only child, but I always wanted a load of brothers and sisters. My mum said I was too much of a handful for her to ever consider having more kids though."

Ginny grimaced. "It's ok I suppose, but it is really annoying being the youngest and the only girl. I've always wanted a sister."

Tonks shrugged. "My mum had two sisters, and from what I've heard about them, having sisters might be overrated."

"Your hair really is fantastic, by the way. Do you dye it like that or change the colour with magic?"

"Neither. I'm a metamorphmagus," Tonks replied proudly.

Ginny looked confused.

"Watch!" Tonks screwed up her face as if she was trying really hard to remember something, and suddenly a curtain of red hair had fallen down to her waist.

"That's amazing!" Ginny cried as Tonks pulled together locks of each of their hair to compare the colours.

"We could almost be sisters now."


End file.
